A 25-year-old Pierce County man who is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend near Lacey, is being held in Thurston County jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.
Marquan Elizah Bryant attended his preliminary appearance in Thurston County Superior Court on Tuesday. Deputies booked him into jail Monday on suspicion of second-degree murder, domestic violence, while armed with a firearm.
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Thurston County deputies found a dead 21-year-old woman with a gunshot wound at an apartment east of Lacey early Monday. Deputies were dispatched after Bryant allegedly told a family member he had shot the woman and the family member called police, The Olympian previously reported.
Court Commissioner Nathan Kortokrax set the bail amount after hearing arguments from Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Alexis Egolf and Defense Attorney Christian Cabrera, as well as testimony from the victim's family.
Egolf requested the court set no bail given the severity of the alleged crime. As she explained the crime, some observers audibly wailed in the courtroom.
"Your honor, the facts in this case are fairly egregious," Egolf said. "The allegation is that the defendant shot his 21-year-old girlfriend in the face and left her to die."
Robin Perez, the victim's godmother, addressed the court over heavy sobs. She called for Bryant to be denied bail.
"I just don't think he should have freedom when my daughter is gone," Perez said. "She was my only daughter. She had an 18-month-old baby, and she no longer has a mom. She was my whole life and she's gone."
Hattie Peterson-Williams, the victim's sister, called the incident "devastating" to her family and community.
"He took my sister's life and left my niece without a mom," Peterson-Williams said. "And left us to explain something to a child that we should never have to."
Richard Adams, the victim's father, also asked that Bryant be denied bail, saying it would be unfair to allow Bryant's release.
"My daughter didn't have a chance," Adams said. "He shot her in the face. That's cruel. And now we got a granddaughter to raise and got to answer to that. He took everything away from us."
In Bryant's defense, Cabrera called for bail to be set at less than $1 million. He said Bryant has no prior criminal convictions and his core family lives nearby.
"He was taken into custody where law enforcement knew he would be," Cabrera said. "And he was taken into custody without any kind of issues."
Many virtual observers repeatedly interrupted the hearing via Zoom to shout derogatory and vulgar statements directed at Bryant. At the conclusion of Bryant's hearing, those voices reached a crescendo, forcing the court to abruptly end its Zoom call.
The investigation
A probable cause statement described the investigation into the woman's death from the perspective of law enforcement.
At 2:09 a.m. Monday, Bryant's mother called 911 from Spanaway. She reported to Pierce County dispatch that her son told her he had shot his girlfriend at Copper Wood Apartments in Thurston County.
Pierce County deputies located Bryant at his grandparent's home in Graham. The statement says deputies called him to step outside and detained him "without issue."
Meanwhile, Thurston County deputies went to the woman's apartment. After calling out to her at the door, deputies entered the unlocked apartment.
Deputies reported finding the woman partially on a couch with a gunshot wound to the face. They confirmed her identity after finding her driver's license.
The statement notes there was evidence that a child lived at the apartment, but no child was present. The deputies learned the child was supposed to be with her biological father, who was not Bryant, at the time of the shooting.
A neighbor told dispatch he heard a single gunshot from the apartment below him between 11:30 p.m. and midnight on Sunday, according to the statement.
Thurston County detectives then went to Graham to get statements from Bryant's grandparents. They reportedly told detectives Bryant called them to pick him up from his mother's home in Spanaway.
Bryant's grandfather said Bryant acted strange and appeared "nervous or jumpy" while they traveled, according to the statement.
Bryant allegedly admitted to carrying a gun, and pulled out a semi-automatic pistol from his pocket. The grandfather told detectives he placed the gun in a closet.
At one point, Bryant allegedly told his grandfather that he "popped her," according to the statement.
Once at his grandparent's home, the statement says Bryant crawled into a bed with his grandmother and sobbed. He allegedly told her had shot his girlfriend.
At 5:31 a.m. Monday, Judge Carol Murphy granted search warrants to a Thurston County detective for the woman's apartment, Bryant's mother's Spanaway home and Bryant's grandparents' Graham home.
Four minutes later, multiple detectives began to execute the search warrants to collect various pieces of evidence.
At the deceased woman's apartment, detectives reportedly found no obvious signs of a disturbance other than the woman being shot.
In the woman's car, a detective found a box of 9-millimeter bullets inside the glove box. The statement says the box could hold 20 rounds, but it contained only seven.
On the driver's seat, the detective found a wallet. It reportedly contained Bryant's driver's license and concealed pistol license.
A deputy coroner moved the woman in the apartment and detectives lifted up the couch. Underneath, they allegedly found a single, expended 9 mm shell casing consistent with the ammunition found in the car.
At the Spanaway home, the statement says detectives found a P80 9 mm handgun in a bedroom closet, as well as paperwork indicating Bryant owned it.
The gun reportedly contained a 10-round magazine with nine rounds. These rounds were consistent with the expended round found at the woman's apartment, according to the statement.
A detective later tried to interviewed Bryant at the Thurston County Courthouse Complex, but he remained silent and asked for an attorney. The statement notes Bryant alternated between "staring blankly and hunching in on himself and sobbing."
One of the search warrants authorized the detective to collect DNA evidence from Bryant. As the detective got ready to collect the evidence, Bryant allegedly asked, "Is she gone?"
After Bryant was booked into jail, a detective packaged his clothing into evidence and noticed a reddish-brown stain on the right sleeve of Bryant's black sweatshirt. The statement says the stain was consistent with a dried blood stain.
